Choline on the Brain? A Guide to Choline in Chronic Fatigue Syndromehttp://phoenixrising.me/research-2/the-brain-in-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-mecfs/choline-on-the-brain-a-guide-to-choline-in-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-by-cort-johnson-aug-2005
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ME scientists write open letter to US senators: "We want to research ME but can't get the funding"

We the undersigned scientists are writing to express our interest and enthusiasm for researching myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), a common and disabling illness long ignored by our nation’s health agencies.

Many of us have had a very difficult time securing adequate funding. Others have been unable to determine even how to apply for funding, as no institute within the NIH has responsibility for researching ME/CFS. The NIH has responded to requests for increased funding by stating that few researchers are interested in studying the illness.

On the contrary there are Nobel Laureates, several members of the National Academy of Sciences, biochemists, biophysicists, geneticists, immunologists, neuroscientists, experts in public health and infectious disease, epidemiologists, and physicians eager and ready to study this disease, were adequate funding made available. The undersigned are just some of those researchers...

This is really something. And the timing is great. I can't help feeling that things are beginning to shift. But we must try to bring our community's attention to these advocacy projects. In my opinion, this funding issue is the single most important issue for us right now. We must get behind it.

This is really something. And the timing is great. I can't help feeling that things are beginning to shift. But we must try to bring our community's attention to these advocacy projects. In my opinion, this funding issue is the single most important issue for us right now. We must get behind it.

Would someone be able to explain who Senator Mikulski is and why the scientists have chosen to address the letter to her? Is there a reason to target one single senator over the government as a whole? Does this senator have special powers/influence?

Would someone be able to explain who Senator Mikulski is and why the scientists have chosen to address the letter to her? Is there a reason to target one single senator over the government as a whole? Does this senator have special powers/influence?

Would someone be able to explain who Senator Mikulski is and why the scientists have chosen to address the letter to her? Is there a reason to target one single senator over the government as a whole? Does this senator have special powers/influence?

Cheers

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Senator Barbara Mikulski is a very senior senator (from Maryland) on the Senate HELP Committee. She used to be the ranking member but I believe since she is retiring in 2018 her Democrat colleague Patty Murray has taken on the role.

Would someone be able to explain who Senator Mikulski is and why the scientists have chosen to address the letter to her? Is there a reason to target one single senator over the government as a whole? Does this senator have special powers/influence?

We are giving a copy of the letter to every senator we meet with, but thought it would be useful to have a specific senator mentioned in the letter linked to in the Science article. Mikulski is a key senator for the reasons jimells mentioned, but we want every senator on the HELP committee to get a copy.

Dr Bateman signed on right after the article was published and we think we will get more signatures this week. Most of the scientists we reached out to were enthusiastic signatories, but I think some wanted to be careful (understandably so) because they get a lot of NIH grants in other areas.

I didn't see the link to the letter the first time through the article, and had to very carefully re-read (embarassingly, twice ) to find it.
I realize this is probably a personal brain-fog issue, but IMO it might be worth promoting the letter on its own in addition to the Science article.
Ie - link separately on Twitter, Facebook etc